


clothed in your legacy

by wlwrwby



Category: RWBY
Genre: Angst, Gen, JanuRWBY, Ruby Rose (RWBY) Needs a Hug, give this poor girl therapy dear god, might do a second chapter if there's enough demand!, no beta we die like redheads in rwby, others are mentioned - Freeform, some talk of blood
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-01-01
Updated: 2021-01-01
Packaged: 2021-03-11 03:48:02
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,332
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28464828
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/wlwrwby/pseuds/wlwrwby
Summary: Ruby can’t stop seeing Summer in the mirror. She changes her look when she gets to Atlas.
Comments: 4
Kudos: 62





	clothed in your legacy

**Author's Note:**

> for day one of JanuRWBY: Favorite Outfit!

Ruby knew that she looked like her mother. Many people, upon meeting her, would do a double take before realizing that they were not, in fact, seeing a ghost. They would soon compose themselves and greet her accordingly. That was a luxury Ruby herself was not in possession of. 

She couldn’t escape it - the lingering haunted looks, the burden she was left behind, the indescribable weight of the world on her shoulders. Most of all, she couldn’t escape herself. She couldn’t escape her reflection. 

There were some differences, of course. Her hair was shorter and more unruly. She was tinier, younger. Her skin was paler, her face rounder, her voice sweeter. But those differences were harder to see, for her hair was the same color, her clothes the same style, her eyes the same silver, her kindness and power just as prominent, the sacrificial nature just as prevalent. 

So yes, Ruby knew she looked like her mother. It was a hard fact to ignore. 

But it didn’t make it easier when her father looked at her with that bittersweet expression on his face. 

But it didn’t make it any easier when the teachers at Beacon would almost call her by the wrong name. 

But it didn’t make it any easier when Raven told her with such contempt, “You sound just like your mother.” 

It didn’t make it any easier when Qrow looked at her after the airship crash with such desperation, his eyes haunted with the memories of a woman long gone. The way he grabbed her hand so tightly as if it was his only tether to a lighter time, another life. His broken expression as she pulled away and told her to trust him looked far too at home on his face. 

Unable to bear it any longer, she turned and marched to the barrel of death. 

And much like her mother before her, she looked death and destruction in the face time after time and told it “No.” 

* * *

After they were given a room in Atlas, Ruby was last to take over the mirror in the attached bathroom. The soft sounds of her teammates preparing for bed after a long day were muffled through the closed door. For the first time in a while, the leader was alone with her thoughts and her thoughts alone. 

Though one’s mind can be a dangerous place. 

She found herself transfixed with her reflection. She ran shaking fingers through her tangled hair and was hit with the realization that her hair was longer than it had ever been. It was now, she found with a start, Summer’s length. Upon further inspection, she noticed the similarities between her combat uniform and her mother’s. The silhouette, the boots, the cape- 

She looked more like her mother than ever. 

  
The tears suddenly streaming down her cheeks only seemed to complete the look. 

Unable to look at her ghost any longer, she turned away. She could face her demons in the morning. 

* * *

Ruby was eager to tag along when Blake and Jaune announced they were going to get their hair cut. She suspected her changes would perhaps be less drastic than her companion’s, but it was a necessary change for her sanity. Every time her hair brushed her neck it felt like it burned. She couldn’t look at herself like this anymore. Not when it was far too reminiscent of her inescapable haunting. 

The trio returned hours later with freshly chopped hair and brighter smiles. Ruby and Jaune, much to the delight of Qrow, both returned with cases of hair gel in hand. 

Since they were all getting a much-needed combat uniform upgrade, it was easy for Ruby to fix the other problem. She designed her outfit to better suit the harsh temperatures and rid of the white in her previous ensemble. Her mother always wore white. 

Once her new look was complete, she felt lighter. Though at the same time, she knew the similarities were now harder to see but still there. They always would be. 

She still hated mirrors and her reflection. But with eyes of silver, reflection was hard to escape. 

* * *

It all came to a head during one of RWBY and JNOR’s sleepovers. They tended to have one or two a week, depending on their respective mission schedules. It gave them time to catch up and relax in each other’s presence. It felt like home. It felt, despite it all, like Beacon. 

Ruby had excused herself to the adjoined bathroom once she tapped out of quite an intense round of Go Fish. Of course, she once again found herself face to face with her reflection. She had stepped away to get a break from the noise and chaos, but had forgotten about the mirror. At the very least, she thought she was over it by now. 

But mirrors and ghosts are often more haunting at night. 

Suddenly, it wasn’t Ruby staring back. No, it was Summer. And she was tired. And most of all, she was angry. With the situation the world put her in, the life she would never live, the sacrifice she had to make. 

With a guttural scream that tore her throat, Ruby swung her fist into the mirror, shattering it into countless tiny shards. She slid against the wall to the ground, sobbing. She distantly registered people banging on the door before wrenching it open to take in the sight. She didn’t move when they asked frantic questions. The words all blended together. 

Then, someone, Jaune, took her hands. Ruby suddenly realized that they were quickly staining with blood as Jaune got to work on healing the cuts while the others hovered. She suddenly wondered what her mother’s white cape looked in her final moments, stained in her blood. She realized it would look like her own. 

Ruby began to laugh. Wasn’t it funny? Wasn’t it funny, you see, how it was as if her very being was drenched in her mother’s blood in the aftermath of her failed sacrifice? How her mother had tried so very hard to end it all so her daughter wouldn’t have to, but instead ended up leaving the weight of the world on her young shoulders? How every damn time she looked in the mirror, she would see not herself, but a ghost? 

No, it wasn’t funny she decided as her laughter began to die down. No. No, it was terrible. And she didn’t deserve any of it. 

With that thought, Ruby started to scream once more. She vaguely registered being pulled into someone’s arms and people’s voices as they spoke frantic words she could not register. 

She would deal with it later, she decided. 

For now, she would break. She would break because of the weight on her shoulders that had been growing since birth, because of the situation the world put her in, because of the life she would never live, because of the sacrifice she knew she would one day have to make. 

For now, she would mourn herself in preparation of what was to come. She would mourn the child she knew had died along with Beacon. 

And, she decided as a wave of calm washed over her, no doubt Ren’s doing, she decided this: Tomorrow, she would stand strong. She wouldn’t break again, for her team, the world, needed her whole. 

And in the end, whenever that might be, she would end the war. No matter the cost. 

* * *

“Like mother, like daughter,” many would say about Ruby and Summer. She followed in her footsteps before she knew it was her only choice, she resembled her to an uncanny extent, she was an incredible Huntress. 

But, unlike Summer, the world would discover, Ruby would end it all. 

Ruby Rose would do what her mother never could. 

Ruby Rose would end the war, once and for all. 

(This, she told herself, was the only way. This would be the end.) 

… 

(It _had_ to be. It couldn’t all be for nothing.) 

**Author's Note:**

> Thank you so much for reading! I'll be doing a lot more of these JanuRWBY prompts throughout the month if all goes well, and you can find more info on the event through the #janurwby tag on twitter! If there's interest, I'll do a second chapter on this one with the other's perspectives. Once again, thank you for reading, and happy new year!!!


End file.
